A 36-year-old man is being questioned by Philadelphia Police regarding the horrifying death of Center City resident Melissa Ketunuti, a pediatrician whose body was found earlier this week in her home, tied up, strangled, and set on fire.

The Inquirer reports the suspect “had not been charged as of Wednesday night, but sources said he was captured on surveillance footage near Ketunuti’s house around the time of the slaying. He was taken into custody in Levittown, where police were searching his house and vehicle.”

According to a police source, the person of interest is an exterminator who had a job scheduled in the neighborhood and followed Ketunuti to her home.

At the man’s house, a single two-story suburban residence that still displayed Christmas decorations and wire reindeer on the front lawn, investigators were scouring garbage cans Wednesday night as police helicopters hovered overhead. Police also towed his Ford F-150 truck.. An investigator said officers were “looking for any link to her.”

Neighbors said the man shared the house with his girlfriend, a young child, and the girlfriend’s stepfather.

Bristol Township Lt. Terry Hughes confirmed late Wednesday night that a 37-year-old man, whose name was not released, was picked up by township police at a home on Crescent Lane in the Crabtree section shortly after 8 p.m. Hughes said the man was taken to Philadelphia for questioning. The man’s silver pickup truck was towed from the home by Philadelphia police shortly after 11 p.m., Hughes confirmed.

Officers were fired at a dog while the suspect was taken into custody, but there were no details on the outcome of that encounter. Expect updates throughout the day.

Smith had an appointment at Ketunuti’s home. At some point, the two got into an argument, the details of which have not been officially released. But police say Smith struck, then strangled Ketunuti. He set the body ablaze.

An 11 a.m. press conference is set by police to announce details of the developments.

UPDATE 11:13 a.m.: Philadelphia Police just held a press conference, announcing charges against Smith that include murder, arson, and abuse of a corpse.

Capt. James Clark of the Homicide Division said Smith is an exterminator hired to do work at the house on Monday. Smith was identified from video surveillance cameras in the neighborhood, and gave a statement to police after being taken into custody.

While at Ketunuti’s home, the two got into an argument, Clark said, though he declined to characterize the substance. ”It went terribly wrong,” Clark said. “He struck her knocked her down, strangled her, and set her body on fire.” Why the fire? ”The only thing I can surmise is he was attempting to hide evidence.”

Smith’s criminal history includes only minor traffic offenses, Clark said. “He’s not really known to police for anything serious.”

Deputy Police Commissioner Richard Ross Jr. praised detectives for bringing the case to a quick conclusion. ”I want to underscore the great detective work that was done by the homicide unit,” Ross said. “I can’t stress enough how effective they were.”

A Cleveland stripper died after attempting a tricky move during a lap dance that caused her to fall 15 feet from a balcony, according to MetroHealth Medical Center.

Lauren Block, 22, died Wednesday from major head trauma. She’d been in critical condition since her Jan. 2 fall, said the medical center.

Block’s family released the following statement:

“We would like to thank the community for their outpouring of support and prayers for Lauren. She … is an organ donor, and we hope this will enable her to save many lives and live on through others. We would like to express our gratitude to the staff at MetroHealth. They worked tirelessly to do all they could to save her life. We ask that the media respect our privacy during this difficult time. We know that she’s in God’s hands.”

Block was entertaining a customer on the second floor of Christie’s Cabaret at 12:40 a.m. on Jan. 2 when she attempted a “jump-dance” move that misfired, the man getting the lap dance told police.

“He stated that she grabbed the rail, as he was facing away from the balcony, and she tried to complete some sort of jump-dance move, and accidentally went head first over the rail,” a Cleveland Police Department incident report said.

Block suffered “massive head trauma” and was lying on the floor of the club when police and paramedics arrived, according to the report.

She was taken to MetroHealth Medical Center, where she was listed in critical condition for a week.

Cleveland Police said they were no longer investigating the incident, which they view as an accident.

Christie’s Cabaret, a chain of “Gentlemen’s clubs,” has not responded to ABC News’ requests for comment.

Hundreds of tea plantation workers have set alight their boss’s bungalow in north-east India, burning to death the owner and his wife, officials say.

Angry workers surrounded the bungalow at Kunapathar in Assam state late on Wednesday, following a two-week long dispute with the management.

Police said the incident happened after the management asked some workers to leave their accommodation.

More than half of India’s tea output comes from 800 tea estates in Assam.

Local official SS Meenakshi Sundaram said some 700 tea garden workers surrounded the manager’s bungalow on Wednesday evening and set it on fire. Two vehicles belonging to the manager were also torched.

The charred bodies of Mridul Kumar Bhattacharyya and his wife, Rita, were later recovered from the debris, Mr Sundaram said.

Police have detained three workers in connection with the incident.

Officials said Mr Bhattacharyya and his workers had been locked in a dispute for the past two weeks.

They said Mr Bhattacharyya had also faced protests at another tea estate that he owned two years ago.

In that dispute, angry workers set fire to his tea factory near the state capital, Guwahati, after he had allegedly fired on a crowd that had gathered near his house to protest against a reported attack on a local woman.

Several incidents of attacks on tea executives by angry workers have been reported from Assam in recent years.

Bail has been set at $35,000 for a woman charged with lying to police as they investigated the disappearance and death of a University of New Hampshire student.

Authorities say 19-year-old Kathryn McDonough of Portsmouth is the girlfriend of Seth Mazzaglia (mah-ZAY-lia), who is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Elizabeth Marriott of Westborough, Mass. He is being held.

Court papers say McDonough gave false statements to authorities about her activities on Oct. 9 and Oct. 12. Marriott was last seen Oct. 9.

A gas pipeline blast followed by a mild earthquake has struck Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi, which will host the 2014 Winter Olympics, a local government spokeswoman told Reuters on Wednesday.

Irina Gogoleva of Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said no one was hurt and there was no apparent damage to the city’s infrastructure after a 5.2 magnitude earthquake was reported at 0242 local time on Wednesday (2242 GMT on Tuesday).

“The Emergencies Ministry servicemen scoured through the city districts, bridges and electrical cables, there was no damage,” Gogoleva said, adding that the epicentre of the quake was some 150 kilometres (93 miles) off Sochi in the Black Sea.

In an unrelated incident, a gas pipeline that feeds a local power station exploded a couple of hours before the quake.

Gogoleva said the power plant had switched to fuel oil and the city was receiving electrical power. She said the reason for the blast was unknown.

Sochi, the first Russian city to have been awarded the Winter Olympics, is located on the coast close to Georgia, with whom Russia fought a brief war in 2008 over two breakaway regions. The wider volatile Caucasus region is a major source of political tension.

Bartel was arrested shortly after he called 911 at 12:10 a.m., according to a statement police released to The Times.

“What’s going on there?” the dispatcher said.

“I, ah, shed some innocent blood,” Bartel can be heard telling the dispatcher in 911 recordings released to The Times.

“I’m sorry?” the dispatcher said, and Bartel repeated himself.

“What do you mean, sir?” the dispatcher said.

“I inscribed a pentagram on my son,” Bartel replied.

“Why did you do that?”

“Because it’s a holy day,” Bartel said before hanging up.

As officers headed to the house, a neighbor called 911 to say a woman was outside complaining about something at her house, Stringer said. Then the child’s mother could be heard saying, “He’s trying to hurt my 6-year-old” and “Please hurry! Oh, God!”

When the dispatcher talked to the boy’s mother directly and asked whether her husband had weapons, the woman said she had taken away one knife but that there were a lot more in the house, Stringer said.

Officers who arrived at the house saw blood smeared on the front door and Bartel’s son standing in the living room, shirtless and shivering, wearing only pajama pants. The pentagram covered most of the boy’s back, Stringer said.

Police believe the boy was assaulted with a box cutter they found in the house, according to the statement.

The boy was taken to Cooks Children’s Hospital for treatment and was listed in stable condition and expected to be held overnight, Stringer said. Police notified Child Protective Services officials, who were working with the victim and his mother late Wednesday.

Stringer said the boy’s mother was not involved and had not been charged in connection with the incident.

Bartel was arraigned Wednesday and jailed on $500,000 bond. Because of the severity of the charge, he was set to be transferred to TarrantCounty Jail on Thursday, and police planned to order a mental evaluation, Stringer said.Richland Hills police have responded to a few calls involving fights at Bartel’s home in recent years, Stringer said, but nothing of this magnitude.

One of those ticket holders used the quick pick option Wednesday afternoon to get his $1 million winning numbers in the Powerball lottery from Wednesday night.

Tickets sold in Arizona and Missouri matched all six numbers to win the record jackpot, Powerball officials said early Thursday morning.

Jerry Hucks, of Rock Hill, S.C., was warming up his truck after getting off work early Thursday morning when he remembered the sticky note where he jotted down Wednesday night’s winning Powerball numbers.

He flipped on the light inside the cab to see the first five numbers on the sticky note aligned perfectly with the last set of numbers printed on his ticket.

Hucks, a truck builder for Daimler Trucks in Cleveland, N.C., went back inside the plant and had a co-worker look at the ticket. His co-worker told him he won $1 million.

“I didn’t even have the truck door locked, and I had a $1 million ticket out there,” he told lottery officials when he arrived Thursday to collect his winnings. “Then I can’t believe I let three or four guys at work hold my ticket and Google the numbers screaming, ‘It’s a $1 million.’ ”

His parting words to them: “I’m not quitting, but I’m not working anymore overtime.”

He called his girlfriend to tell her the news and that he was headed home. She was worried it was taking him too long, but at one point he had to pull over to throw up, overcome he beat the 1 in 5,153,633 odds.

Hucks was one of three South Carolina Education Lottery players to successfully match the first five numbers drawn Wednesday night (5, 16, 22, 23 and 29; Powerball: 6). He bought his ticket on the way to work Wednesday and he had to stand in line. He’s glad he was patient and waited for his quick pick to print.

Hucks plans to pay off his house and return to work Friday.

South Carolina also had a $2 million winner. The six-figure winners matched all five white ball numbers drawn to win $1 million. One of the ticket holders purchased PowerPlay for an extra $1, to have the $1 million Match 5 prize increased to $2 million.

Overall there were 140,000 winning tickets sold in the Palmetto State totaling $5.3 million. These winners took home anywhere from $4 to $2 million.